"Not I! The other two are fools."

"Then do you understand that in case these people should make
us prisoner--"

He nodded. "They might. They might propose to sell you to the
Turks, perhaps against their own stolen women-folk."

"Then don't you see that if you were gone, and I told them you had
gone to bring Kagig, they would let us go rather than face
Kagig's wrath?"

"But Kagig would not come."

"I know that. But how should they know it?"

I knew that be nodded again by the motion of the glowing tobacco
in his pipe. It glowed suddenly bright, as a new idea dawned on
him. He was an honest fellow, and did not conceal the thought.

"Kagig would not send me back to you," he said. "He is short of
men at Zeitoon."

"Never mind," said I. "In case of trouble up above here, but not
otherwise, will you do that?"

"Gladly. But give it me in writing, lest Kagig have me beaten for
running from you without leave."

That was my turn to jump at a proposal. I tore a sheet from my